“It’s a simple idea. It means lowering your own barrier, without waiting for other countries to reciprocate. In practice, this means reducing or even completely removing tariffs that you impose on imports from abroad. This is only possible now that the UK is leaving the EU Customs Union, which requires us to obey EU rules on trade with the rest of the world.”

With an unemployment rate of 23.1%, Greece is still the worst off European country. Even if we look beyond the EU, there is Serbia with an unemployment rate of 13%. Surely, we cannot claim that Europe as a whole is in need of an increased supply of labour?

“Growth had been sluggish and was expected to remain so in the near term. With some business survey expectations balances having weakened, there remained the possibility of a further softening in activity. Weak data on car registrations and the housing market, together with the fall in consumer confidence, could signal weaker consumption than in the central projection. At the same time, increased domestic uncertainty was likely to act as a drag on investment, and there was a risk that this effect would be larger than had been assumed in the forecast.”

For Britain, it turns out women, on average, do indeed earn 28.6% less than men do. However, when women and men are compared when working on the same level, it drops to 9.3%. When they perform jobs at the same level at the same company, it drops further to 2.6%. And when they are performing the same function, at the same level, at the same company, the difference is only 0.8%.

For France, the numbers move from 17% overall, to only 2.7% for the same function, same level, and same company. For Germany, the number decreases from 15.1% to 3.0%. None of them seem to be anywhere near the original amount or near the ‘’77 cents on the dollar’’ myth.

“Within our mandate, the ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro. And believe me, it will be enough,” those were the words outed by the President of the European Central bank Mario Draghi some five years ago at a speech in London. Well, Deutsche Bank recently calculated how much those costs turned out to be, and we can conclude that Draghi absolutely meant what he said. He spent €1,2 trillion (€1.200.000.000.000). That’s a pretty impressive.